


My Arms Reach Out for You (Why Can't You Take Them?)

by doctornemesis



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Comfort, Communication, Drugs, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Lack of Communication, Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Torture, Shotgunning, Spice, Torture, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 05:50:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6182944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctornemesis/pseuds/doctornemesis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Get out of my head!”</p><p>That's how it started. Or, at least, that's how Finn knew it had started.</p><p>The nightmares. </p><p>The night terrors.<br/>---<br/>Finn struggles to try and help the one person he cares for most as Poe suffers from PTSD relating from Kylo Ren's mental and physical torture. Finn just wants him to know he'll be there, no matter what.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Arms Reach Out for You (Why Can't You Take Them?)

**Author's Note:**

> 1.) PTSD, mental health issues and light drug usage center in this fic. Just in case you didn't read the tags, I'm reiterating it here.
> 
> 2.) I wrote this for a tfa_kink prompt calling for "shotgunning." Unfortunately, I lost where this prompt was, so if you are the one who posted, this one's for you!
> 
> 3.) I do not own Star Wars, nor any of the characters here mentioned.

“Get out of _my_ head!”

 

That's how it started. Or, at least, that's how Finn knew it had started.

 

The nightmares.

 

The night terrors.

 

The nights Finn couldn't hear him scream were the nights Poe didn't sleep. Finn felt afraid for him, and he often felt alone. He missed Rey the most when Poe slept.

 

When Poe locked him out.

 

When he cut people off, and lashed out at them.

 

The insomnia made him disoriented and fragile looking, and no one seemed capable of helping him. Mostly because Poe didn't want their help. In fact, he grew more wrathful the more help he was offered. It didn't appear to matter that it was out of love for him. The longer it endured the more fearful Finn grew.

 

Often times he found himself outside Poe's door, back against the wall as he listened to his tormented, nonsensical rantings. The jolted, slurred confessions of the violation executed upon his mind. Finn felt helpless, and when he felt helpless, he often cried, and so he did.

 

Finn would stay until the shouting stopped, until Poe drowned in his tears and exhaustion that led to a peaceful nothingness. General Organa would make her rounds, and though neither spoke out loud, they acknowledged with a glance that they were there for the same reason. A deep sadness began to settle over the General's face like a funeral veil the more time went on, and then one day she broke their nonverbal agreement and spoke.

 

“Finn, I would like you to come with me,” she said, and though it sounded voluntary, Finn could tell it was not, and so he got up from where he sat.

 

The time was early, he knew from the faint blue that began to bleed purple and then red through the windows of the corridor they traveled down. Poe, who had finally exhausted himself enough to fade into unconsciousness, would need to be up and ready within the next hour. General Organa walked ahead of him, her arms crossed loosely behind her back. She said nothing, and so Finn said nothing. Never mind the fact he felt he would collapse if he didn't say something soon.

 

Something about Poe.

 

Something about helping Poe.

 

Finn imagined Rey would know what to do.

 

Why couldn't Rey help him?

 

More importantly, why couldn't he help Poe?

 

Why did Poe forbid him from at least trying to help?

 

Finn, so deep in thought as he was, didn't realize they had bypassed General Organa's office. In fact, Finn found himself in a region of the base completely foreign to him. General Organa looked back at him, but didn't appear fazed by his sudden confusion. She merely punched in a code Finn deliberately didn't add to memory even though he could, and waited for him to enter. It didn't take Finn long to realize that he stood in the midst of someones private area.

 

General Organa's private quarters.

 

The room was lofty, but sparse compared to her office. A place for rest and meditation. A break from the grueling endeavor of making sure democracy didn't collapse for a second time within the galaxy.

 

“Take a seat, Finn,” she said, pointing to a small rounded table that sat in a far corner. There were three chairs, and so he picked the one closest to the wall.

 

A habit; a way to protect himself.

 

Maybe he wasn't okay, either.

 

General Organa looked down at him, at where he sat, and she smiled as she took her own seat across from him. A small, sad smile, and Finn could see the veil fold over her face again. He didn't like it.

 

“Finn, I want to talk to you about Poe,” she said, peering down at the white linen cloth that covered the table top. She frowned then, as though she had realized something upsetting about the entire scene. Finn just hoped it wasn't him.

 

That he didn't belong.

 

“Threepio,” she called, and from the opposite end of the room started a droid. The gold protocol droid with a red left arm that stood out of place. Finn was not familiar with protocol droids, but Threepio was polite as far as he could tell, almost to a fault.

 

“Yes, General Organa, what may I do for you on this oh so lovely morning?” he replied, shuffling toward them with bustling speed.

 

“I rudely forgot to make some tea for my guest and I, would you mind?” she asked, and that, too, was odd to Finn. Never had he heard anyone ask a droid whether or not they minded doing a task they were designed and built to do.

 

“Of course not, Madame Solo...Oh, dear me. I'm sorry, Madame Organa,” he said, shuffling toward the small kitchenette, apparently humiliated in his blunder. “Please do forgive me. After so many years...”

 

“Threepio, it's okay. Really. I would also like some crumpets to go with the tea, please.”

 

“What flavor of tea would you prefer this morning, General?”

 

“Cassius tea would be delightful, thank you.”

 

“Of course, and for you, sir?” he asked, looking toward Finn. No one had ever called him 'sir' before.

 

“I'll, um, have the same. Please,” he answered, looking down at his lap.

 

General Organa stretched a hand out toward his, placing it over Finn's. “Don't be embarrassed, Finn. You'll love it. I drink it in the mornings, it reminds me of my home,” she said, patting his hand twice with hers before retracting it.

 

“Where is your home, General? If you don't mind me asking.”

 

The veil weighed most gravely over her eyes. “My home was a planet named Alderaan, but most referred to it as 'the planet of beauty',” she said, a shimmer of pride shinning through her dark, observant eyes.

 

Her son had inherited them, Finn realized, though they were not kind and passive in their observations.

 

“How long have you been away from your home?” he asked.

 

Leia looked down at her folded hands then, smiling at Threepio who sat their tea and crumpets down upon the table. “Thank you,” she said, taking the cup in both of her hands, inhaling the scent with a soft sigh before turning her attention back towards Finn who patiently awaited an answer. “It's been...a very long time since I last saw my home, Finn. It was destroyed before my very eyes many years ago, though, when I close them, it only feels like yesterday I was last home with my mother and father.”

 

Finn was horrified by the admission. “I'm so sorry,” he said.

 

“Thank you, dear. I know you mean it.”

 

Their was a long pause between them in which Finn followed General Organa's lead, imitating how she drank her tea and ate her crumpets; both were delicious. Finn found he was afraid to speak, fearing he would bring more sadness upon the woman who had been nothing but kind to him. A pain settled in his heart; he wondered if his planet, his _real_ home, had also been destroyed.

 

“Finn, I know you're concerned about Poe. In fact, I know you're running yourself into the ground with your worry over him, but I don't believe you know why that is.”

 

“There's something wrong with him,” he said. Finn knew that much.

 

“Yes, but do you understand what it is that's wrong with him?” she asked, taking another sip of her tea.

 

“Well,” Finn started, then stopped. “No. No, I don't.”

 

“Your entire life you've been indoctrinated. You understand that you were manipulated from birth into believing what the First Order wanted you to believe...into acting how they wanted you to act. You understand this.”

 

“Yes,” Finn said, not quite grasping what the older woman was trying to convey to him.

 

“Poe has been trained to resist torture, to resist indoctrination, both physical as well as mental. Poe has been on many dangerous missions, some more dangerous then others. He has been compromised, and he has been tortured, but he underwent a very specific, very invasive form of torture before you helped him to escape.”

 

Finn could feel himself beginning to grow upset, his face felt flush and his chest rose and fell a little faster than normal. The idea of Poe sustaining torture distressed him even though he had seen the aftermath first hand, had witnessed his capture. General Organa placed her hands over his before they could ball into fists, both soothing and centering him.

 

“I, too, have sustained the same form of torture Poe underwent...by a man I would later learn to be my biological father, but Poe is not Force sensitive, and his mind was fully invaded. I see it in him as I saw it in myself, as a leader he refuses to show the trauma, to admit it. He's internalizing it, and he is reliving it. Over and over again, and it does not get easier from here.”

 

“What can we do?” Finn asked, a lump in his throat he was forced to speak around. He was desperate for an answer.

 

“We can be there for him, Finn. We continue to do what we do now, and we don't relent, and we don't give up on him,” she said, a spark of determination in her eyes.

 

“Who never gave up on you, General?” Finn asked, and watched as a smile untainted by bitter sadness unfolded across her face.

 

“My brother, and my future husband, especially. They never gave up on me, Finn.”

 

“I'm not his brother or his husband,” Finn said, and was startled at the laugh his words caused her.

 

“You may not be his brother nor his husband, Finn, but you are someone very special to him. You must see that, don't you?” she asked, patting his hand.

 

“Honestly, I feel like I'm in his way most of the time. I don't know anything, and because I don't know anything, I can't help him.”

 

“You know what you feel, don't you?” she asked, and at this point Finn realized General Organa was leading him somewhere, though he didn't quite understand where just yet.

 

“Yes,” he answered.

 

“And what do you feel?”

 

“That I'm not going to give up until he comes back, no matter how long that takes.”

 

General Organa smiled, standing to her feet as Finn did the same, embracing him. “And I know you'll do it, Finn. I believe in you.”

 

Finn hugged her back, hugged her harder than he ever had before. “No one's ever said that to me before,” he admitted.

 

“I'll be sure to remind you whenever you need it.”

 

* * *

 

 

Finn, motivated and determined to locate Poe and tell him all that he felt he needed to say, set off to find him. Checking the time, he figured he would find him outside with the Blue Squadron, running drills until early afternoon when he would take over command of the Red Squadron, running them through the same tiring drills as before. Poe was relentless, rash but dedicated and disciplined, so it was unusual to see neither Squadron geared up and ready to go.

 

Jessika caught his attention first, flagging him down near the mess hall. “You're looking for Poe, right?” she asked, looking around to make sure no one was ease dropping on their conversation.

 

“Yeah, have you seen him?” he asked, concern growing once again as he tried to keep his voice down.

 

“Poe held a commanders call last night before lights out. He delineated that all course training would be canceled for the day, to be resumed first thing the morning after tomorrow. Poe has never, in his life, even as a young cadet, taken a personal day,” she said, wringing her hands together. It was something Finn had never seen her do before. It unnerved him greatly.

 

“Is he still on base?” Finn asked as they turned the corner.

 

“As far as we know, he hasn't left D'Qar. Unless he's found another way to get off planet, that is. If he's in his quarters, he's not answering calls, but that's not like him. He's gone somewhere, we just don't know where, and honestly, it has me worried, which is why I was looking for you.”

 

“Looking for me?”

 

“Yeah, looking for _you_ ,” Jess said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the galaxy. “None of us can break the chain of command. What Poe says goes for us, but you don't operate within our chain of command. Not that you're not apart of the Resistance or anything, you just navigate through it differently, you know?”

 

“I guess,” Finn said, and he would be lying if he said it didn't bother him. Of course they wanted Finn on their side, he had first hand knowledge of how the enemy operated, after all; they just didn't know where exactly he fit in. Finn was working on finding his niche, but until then, he was still an outsider, even if it was in the loosest of terms. “How do you think I can help?”

 

“Follow me,” Jess said, and so Finn did. The two didn't travel far, down a corridor that led from the mess hall back to the barracks. “Snap said he saw Poe heading towards the forest from this direction.”

 

“Into the forest? By himself?” Finn said, looking out the window in the direction Jess pointed to.

 

“Yeah, he didn't even take BB with him this time, and he takes BB everywhere,” she answered with a heavy sigh.

 

“I'll go,” Finn said, remembering the conversation he had shared with General Organa earlier that morning.

 

“Are you sure, Finn? I mean, you don't have to. I know Poe will come back eventually, but...”

 

“No. I'll go. I have to. It's kind of hard to explain.”

 

Jess snorted, patting Finn on the back with one hand as she brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear with the other. “You two are _so_ weird for each other,” she said, and Finn didn't even try to understand what she meant.

 

And so Finn took off in the direction Poe had last been seen heading in. After he grabbed his jacket, that is. The jacket Poe had given to him; the jacket he had taken in remembrance of Poe who he thought he had lost.

 

 _'Never again_ , _'_ he thought. He would never lose Poe again.

 

The landscape of D'Qar was unlike anything Finn had experienced before. The forests were thick, rich with soft, treacherous soil and trees that intertwined and branched out in a thousand different directions. The earth inclined for miles on end before crashing suddenly into a fast moving stream that made swift course towards a rushing river with dangerous currents. The heat was often humid, but the sun hardly touched the forest floor, creating a stifling atmosphere in most parts not cleared by water. The darkness didn't disturb Finn nearly as much as the groaning of the bowing trees, trinkets of pollen settling in his hair, on his clothes and the skin of his neck,hands and face.

 

 _'Why would Poe go this way?'_ Finn thought right before he lost his footing, hitting his back as he slid down a sharp, narrow slope.

 

Finn laid flat, staring up at the dark green canopy above him, noticing the two small openings that streamed separate rays of light in his direction. Finn put his hand out in front of his face, capturing one of those rays for himself. “The small things make it worth it,” he muttered, pushing himself back up as he continued on, more careful this time.

 

Finn chastised himself for growing reckless, recklessness served nothing but folly. The sound of trickling water beginning to surge forth caught his ear. Finn laughed, his heart picking up at the idea of running into a clearing soon, gathering a handful of cool water into his mouth to drink. The closer he grew to the water the more something else began to stir his other senses, and the more light that seeped through the more he could make out what appeared to be smoke. Curious and concerned, Finn stalked further towards the concentrated smell, taking his time as he tried to asses the situation.

 

The last thing Finn expected was to be tackled to the ground by the very man he had been in search of. “ _Ow_ ,” he huffed, the wind knocked out of him. Poe hit hard.

 

The look in Poe's eyes as he studied him was wild, startled in their recognition of him. “Finn, what are you doing here?” he asked, leaning back as he unclenched his fist.

 

Finn swallowed hard, Poe's weight still pinning his lower half down. “I...was worried,” he said, deciding the truth to be the best course of action.

 

Poe groaned, the aggravation he felt palpable as he moved back to his feet, yanking his hair in between his fingers as he paced to and fro. “Well, you shouldn't have. You should be back on base right now,” he said, turning his back on him.

 

“Doing what?” Finn asked, picking himself up off the ground for the second time that day. “Listlessly wandering around like I do everyday?”

 

“You don't... _wander_ around,” Poe argued, though he didn't seem to know how to back that statement up, merely driving Finn's point further home. “You shouldn't be out here, Finn.”

 

“Why?”

 

Poe sighed, leaning against a large tree with massive roots risen up from the earth. “Because you shouldn't have to see me like this,” he said, picking something up from the ground, blowing the dirt from it.

 

“I'm just happy to see you at all.”

 

Poe cocked his head to the side, studying Finn as he hummed lightly to himself. Whatever he had in his hand he raised to his mouth, producing a small lighter from his pocket with the other. Finn watched him, curiosity getting the better of him.

 

“You know what this is, Finn?” he asked, lighting the end of the strip he held between his lips, inhaling whatever it was directly into his lungs.

 

Finn watched him, not moving. “No,” he answered after a moment or two of silence.

 

Poe smiled at him. A slow, languorous smile. A grin that said it was deliberate in its alluring attempt. A lost sort of smile that seemed to beg Finn to help bring him home. “It's _spice_ ,” he said, trying to gauge whether the word held any meaning to the man standing before him.

 

It didn't. “I don't know what that is,” he said, his nose picking up the unfamiliar scent in larger doses; it made his head spin.

 

“You don't, do you?” he said, a sloppy grin crossing his face, never once reaching his eyes. Poe leaned against the tree, motioning for Finn to come closer, and so Finn did. “Spice is just a slang term. There's a bunch of different types of spice, some more dangerous than others. Some more potent, but this...this is about as close to nature as you can get.”

 

“What does it do?” Finn asked, taken aback as Poe placed a hand on his hip, drawing him forward by the band of his pants until their chests almost touched. The sun painted Poe's face in a bronze hue, his dark orbs swirling with ringlets made of gold. Finn wanted to reach out and cradle his cheek, sooth away the dark circles under his tired eyes.

 

“It makes you feel good,” he said, the hand on Finn's hip playing with the empty belt loop of his pants, laughing as his thumb brushed against the brass button, causing Finn to shudder. “It helps to take away some of the stress...at least for a little bit. Wanna try?”

 

Finn hesitated, unsure of what he should do. Finn wanted, more than anything, to talk to Poe, but he hadn't seen the other man this relaxed in weeks. To see Poe smile, to hear him laugh, to have him talk with a loose tongue and light heart...it was everything Finn longed for.

 

“If...If you think I'd enjoy it,” Finn said, words tangled together as Poe's thumb traced along the flesh of his abdomen, just below his navel.

 

Poe laughed again, a little softer this time. “Everyone enjoys it,” he said, taking another drag, exhaling a stream of smoke that drifted nice and slow in Finn's direction. “I'll do it this way, since you've never tried it. When I inhale, I'll exhale the smoke into your mouth.”

 

Finn froze, his brain trying to discern Poe's exact words. “You want to what?” he asked, brows knitted together as he evaluated the situation he had quite suddenly found himself in.

 

“Watch,” Poe said, inhaling once again, the end glowing a bright orange as his cheeks drew in. Instead of exhaling; however, Poe grabbed a hold of Finn's jacket with one hand, pulling him in as the other cupped his face. Finn had less than five seconds to realize what was about to happen before Poe's mouth covered his own, his tongue sliding across Finn's bottom lip, beckoning him to open up.

 

Finn did, breathing in a mixture of smoke and something unique to Poe himself. Finn moaned, his chest constricting as he wrapped his arms around Poe's waist, embracing him as he pressed back, swallowing down the last of his oxygen. Poe parted from the impromptu kiss, though not far as he watched Finn's face closely. The lightheaded feeling Finn felt before intensified, his entire body felt warm and heavy, and good. So good. Poe smiled at him, his hand still cradling Finn's cheek.

 

It felt amazing.

 

Everything felt amazing.

 

Poe repeated the process, and every time their lips met Finn felt himself fall a little bit more in love and lust. After the spice had come and gone, their lips still met. A desperate desire to consume all of Poe befell him then, his pulse thrumming pleasantly beneath his skin as Poe's lips moved lower and lower still until his teeth dragged along Finn's throat before pulling away. Finn, with his back pinned against the large tree that shaded them, whined low at the loss of contact. Opening his eyes, he noticed Poe staring up at him with a hazy look clouding his face.

 

A self-satisfied, cat-like grin to him.

 

“You in love with me, Finn?” he asked, trailing a thumb along Finn's cheekbone down to his bottom lip, seemingly enticed by the areas he touched.

 

“Yes...,” Finn said with a long draw of breath, tripping headfirst into Poe's dark, entrancing eyes. “I'm completely hung up on you.”

 

“Well, good,” he said with a huff, patting Finn's cheek before kissing him again.

 

Finn watched as Poe took a seat on the ground, propping one of his legs up over the overgrown root of the tree; their tree. He looked up at him, patting the soft earth beside him. Finn took the hint, sitting down next to him, their shoulders brushing together.

 

“You wanna talk, Finn?” he asked, and Finn nodded.

 

“I would like to,” Finn said, shifting over a little as Poe laid his head down upon his shoulder. “I want you to know that I'm here for you, Poe. To listen...”

 

“To steal my breath away,” Poe murmured across the flesh of his neck, causing Finn to shiver.

 

“I'm pretty sure you're the one who stole my breath,” Finn argued, heat rising in his cheeks.

 

“My head's not right, Finn,” he said, and suddenly the uplifting feeling was pulled out from underneath them, and reality had them crashing back down, breaking their backs upon waves of grief and inner turmoil. “I keep trying to make it go away, but it won't.”

 

“I'm sorry,'' Finn said, and he was.

 

“Thanks,” Poe mumbled, raising his head up to look Finn in the eye. “I know you mean it.”

 

Finn watched him, watched him as closely as Poe watched him. The veil he had seen folded over General Organa's eyes looked similar to what he saw fall over Poe, but instead of a veil it appeared more like a blindfold, hindering Poe from finding his way back to himself. Finn placed his fingers along Poe's closed eyelids, trying to remove the cloth stitched together of suffering and grief.

 

“I should have gotten to you sooner,” he said, watching as Poe turned away from him as he did so.

 

“I'm lucky you got to me at all,” Poe said, turning his attention back towards Finn, kissing him harshly on the mouth. “You didn't have to save me.”

 

“Yes, I _did_ ,” Finn said, and though he couldn't quite explain it, saving Poe was not a choice he had made. “I had to save you, Poe. That wasn't a choice I made. I had to do it. I had to get us out of there.”

 

Poe began to laugh. Poe laughed long and deep and hard. Finn felt fear begin to coil in his stomach at Poe's laughter, the depravity of it, as though what Finn had said had shocked his system. Finn didn't know how to react, and so he placed a hand upon Poe's shoulder, shaking him back to reality. Poe stopped laughing, sobering to the moment at hand.

 

“You, a complete stranger, gave more of damn then someone I grew up with, Finn. Someone who knew me.”

 

“Who...”

 

“The guy torturing me.”

 

Finn frowned. “Kylo Ren,” he said, nearly spitting as he spoke.

 

“Yeah, well, his real name's Ben. We grew up together, sort of. Our parents were war buddies, and even after the war the Solo's made it a habit to stop by and visit,” Poe's hands balled into fists the more he spoke. “That son of a...No, no. Leia and Han were the best of parents, even with their manic schedules they loved that kid.”

 

“He betrayed you,” Finn said, taking Poe's hands into his own, trying to ease the others anger.

 

“He _betrayed_ everyone who ever loved him,” Poe said, speaking through gritted teeth as tears welled in his eyes. “In my head, he played my mothers voice over _and_ over again. I watched her die, over and over again. He attended the funeral, Finn. He knew what my mother meant to me, and he used her...used her memory. Used my memories of her to break into my mind. The kid was always twisted. He used to play these games...these mind games. They were like nightmares he crafted, playing on peoples fears...Well, he could never manipulate me like everyone else because I didn't fear anything, so he used my grief instead. One of the many reasons his parents shipped him off to Luke, his uncle.”

 

“The Jedi Rey's with, right?”

 

“That would be the one,” Poe said, patting Finn's thigh. “He's a good guy. She's in good hands. A friend of my moms. The last time I saw him was at the funeral, he told the most amazing stories about her. Stories not even my dad knew. Of how brave she was, and how strong and fun and daring. A little reckless, but with a good heart.”

 

“She sounds a lot like you,” Finn said, dusting a bit of pollen from the shoulder of his jacket.

 

Poe smiled at him, a genuine smile this time. “You know what bothers me the most, Finn?” he said, sighing as he leaned his head back against the tree, eyes studying the swaying branches above their heads. “I would give anything to have my mom back, and he...he goes and kills his own dad, you know? Kills the man after he broke his heart and spirit so long ago...kills one of the few people left who still believe there's some good in him.”

 

“Who are the others?” Finn asked, suddenly curious. To him, Kylo Ren was a thing of unpredictable terror. An incurable tyrant who used fear and misunderstood power to keep those around him in check.

 

“His mother and uncle, for one,” he said, eyes settling loosely shut. “And maybe me.”

 

“ _You?_ ” Finn asked, startled by his response.

 

Poe sighed, scratching at the stubble that had begin to grow along his jawline. “Yeah, me. I, it's hard to explain, I guess. It was almost like...he couldn't hold the torture before pieces of himself began to bleed through. Pieces of his childhood, his mothers face, her embrace...his fathers laugh. I could hear him screaming, Finn. However twisted Ben might have been, and he _was_ , there's just something not right about it,” he said, and he appeared relieved for doing so.

 

“Maybe there is,” Finn said. “Maybe that's something you should tell General Organa.”

 

Poe looked at him, intertwining their fingers together as he brought Finn's hand up to kiss it, the sun perched high in the sky, warming them through the open branches that strayed out onto their own. “I don't want to give her any false hope, Finn. I don't want to break her heart anymore than it has been. I can't tell her, but it's been nice being able to tell you.”

 

Finn's heart soared, and though he knew the road would be long and hard, and he would lose Poe as often as he regained him, the man would always be well worth it. A series of thoughts and questions loomed over him, but he felt brave enough now to face them. Of course, he still missed Rey terribly, but he would patiently wait for the day they would reunite, and he would show her just how far he had come.

 

“I'll always be here for you. Whenever you need me. We're going to work through this together.” Which one of them said it first is often debated, but both meant it, and both would go on to uphold their promise.

 

* * *

 

 

Finn often struggled to feel as though he found his place, while Poe often struggled to find his way back to himself, but together, they found a place entirely of their own. A place both could fall into, and call home. A place they built for themselves.

 

A shelter from the cruel uncertainty of the universe that was built from nothing more than hard embraces, tender kisses, and the right words.

 

Rey would always be proud of him. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
